Zest-O bares plant expansion in 3 key areas

Beverage firm Zest-O Corp is set to put up new plants in the Philippines for its Zest-O and RC Cola products. Alfredo Yao, Zest-O president, told reporters they will put up plants in Canlubang, Laguna and Novaliches, Quezon City for Zest-O products while for RC Cola products, the company will construct a plant in San Fernando, Pampanga. Yao declined to say how much the company will be spending for the new projects. "We will be using a combination of borrowings and equity to fund these plants," he said. Yao also declined to discuss the company's plan to list its shares in China. He earlier said Zest-O is studying the possibility of listing in the China's bourse within the next two years, noting the high economic growth of the East Asian country. Yao said the company has no immediate plans to go public in the Philippines. The Philippine Stocks Exchange has been wooing Zest-O to list in the bourse since 2005. Zest-O earlier consolidated its juice business in the 1990s in line with its plan to conduct an IPO but shelved the plan owing to dismal market conditions. -Cheryl Arcibal, GMANews.TV